Strange, isn’t it? Those who purport to be the wisest among us rage against the agenda put forth by a being whose existence they deny. And going full circle, the same people follow an agenda put forth by another being whose existence they have long ago discarded as a relic of ancient imagination.

Such is the world today. God doesn’t exist. Satan doesn’t exist. Yet both see their agendas for humanity moving handily along. God on the one hand is assembling eternity as he will have it. Satan on the other hand, lacking the powers of creation ex-nihilo (out of nothing), is working to develop his own brand of heaven using the tools of the natural world that have been placed at his disposal.

And those tools are formidable. Technology, being officially neutral in the coming conflict, is being developed by humanity to usher in the final world empire. Government and social norms are adjusting to accommodate this new world order. More and more of society’s time, money and effort is being diverted into creating this new kingdom. It is to be the culmination of human wisdom through the ages, placed under the rule of a benevolent king.

Cracks in the facade sometimes appear, however. Conflicts in the Middle East often reveal that not all is sweetness and light as depicted in press releases for this new world order. Bumps in the road to utopia are never condoned. Jews experienced the full force of this as the Final Solution during World War II in Germany. It occurred under the leadership of the National Socialist Worker’s Party. Today Christians have joined Jews under the worldwide leadership of Islamic states demanding conversion or death.

One would think the world would be outraged. One would be wrong. The secular world stands by in feigned ignorance. Why not let those who believe in one or another of those silly world religions do their work for them? Then the agenda can move forward, unimpeded by quaint religious beliefs, whatever they may be. Peace in our time.

Yet there is another agenda at work in the world. God did something truly brilliant (you would expect less?) in interrupting history so he could insert the Church into the world. He threw out all the rules that had grown up around his original laws as given to the Jews through Moses (10, written in stone, if memory serves). He entered into his own creation, lived here for 33 years and finally accepted all the blame for everything that had failed during our watch. He even let us kill him, as the just penalty for his guilt.

God chose the Jews to pass on his laws from generation to generation, because he knew they were hard-headed and would follow through, if only grudgingly. The Church was formed differently. God wrote the only two laws that really mattered to him not on stone tablets, but inside the human heart of those he loved. “This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like unto it …” (Matthew 22:38-39 NRSV).

How much did God love those obscure bits of humanity that would become the Church? Enough to die for them. Which he did. The best analogy he could leave with us was that of the bride and groom. The Church is described as the bride. It was the best the supernatural could do in explaining the relationship he was looking for from people living in the natural world.

In the midst of the diatribes the world often releases when things aren’t advancing according to plan, one usually finds Christians and Jews at the top of the hate list. The Mideast would be a land of peace and plenty if only Israel would turn over its land and resources to the Palestinian people. And domestically, bliss will follow once the Christians are silenced from the public debate and forced to convert to the secular religion.

The world is powerless to attack God directly with their hatred (it had that chance once). Thus they focus on Christians and Jews, the two peoples who bear the mark of God, either in their race or in their heart. The world as a group despises the monotheistic creator who made them, the same God who reveals himself to them on the pages of the Bible. Remember the words: “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18).

The world sees immortality as the fusion of man and machine; a human consciousness that will live forever trapped inside a robot’s skin. God sees it as a relationship unfolding out into eternity. You get to choose.